Be Still My Beating Heart

5 km and Counting
On Monday I surprised myself by reaching a significant milestone with a 5.05 km activity. 5.0 km is the distance in parkrun which is my first race goal and I hadn't expected to reach that distance that day but due to running faster than planned, I covered more ground. It did include warm up and cool down which were both 5 min's so really it was only about a 4 km activity, but hey, GPS had 5 km on it when I got home so I'm having it.
Today I clocked 4.95 km on the treadmill, excluding warm up/cool down in a session of 4 x 7 minute runs with 3 min walk intervals.

Until today, I have been treating warm up and cool down as part of my cumulative activity. To be honest, until a few weeks ago I'd have only been out 10 min's if I didn't. Anyway, now I'm in the area of 5 km, I will exclude those so that my records show actual activity distance and duration only.

Heart Rate
For reasons associated with fascination with data, Decathlon's website, discounted kit and impulse spending I have ended up with a cheap Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) watch.  This is proving entertaining but also slightly concerning.
My resting heart rate is about 54bpm which for age 59 is pretty darned good. However, when it comes to training the figures appear rather high. In a steady and not that taxing 4 x 7 min treadmill session I was recording a high of 175bpm on the runs reducing to 135bpm by the end of each 3 min walk interval. Now, the drop of 40 is great but everything I've read infers that I should be aiming at highs of about 132bpm where I'm currently over 170bpm.
I shall experiment over the next couple of weeks and update you.

I am hoping to use the HRM to solve my puzzle of the different effort between road and treadmill. I feel I'm putting about the same effort into 11.5 kph on road and 9 kpm on the treadmill with a 2.3 gradient set.  In theory, I can correlate these by using my heart rate to identify the same effort. I'm actually quite excited about this which I realise is pathetic.


  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.

Heading For The Goal

Progressing
Progress has been excellent since my last post. My Treadmill sessions continue to extend and 2 more road runs have given me a lot more confidence. As yet, my errant achilles are remaining intact.

The following distances and times include 5 min warm up and 5 minute cool down walks.

• 23rd Jan 2013: 4.5 km of which 2.9 km was running. 31 mn overall / 15 mn running
• 17th Jan 2013: 4.0 km of which 2.2 km was running. 29 mn overall / 12 mn running

I am gradually improving the ratio of run to walk with my latest road run being 3 x 5 min running with interval walks down to 3 min. I think I'm going to stick at 3 min recovery walks for a while now while extending the run interval duration.

Goals Set
As I mentioned in early posts, I am using the excellent Runkeeper App to track my progress. Yesterday I finally entered a couple of goals, the Great Manchester Run 10k is on 26th May and my ultimate goal and I have given myself a goal of completing my first 5k parkrun by 24th February.


  
Running for St. Ann's Hospice in memory of Margaret Donovan (Mum) and Sheila Waddington.

Cramping My Style

Cramp!
CRAMP for God's sake! I thought I'd torn something in my calf but the Osteopath tells me I just had a severe localised cramp, probably partly due to dehydration after sitting around in too hot rooms drinking too much booze for 2 weeks over the Christmas holiday. It still took a week to stop hurting, cramp or no cramp.
Properly hydrating now and swigging tonic water for good measure as the Quinine really helps with cramp.

Off Down The Road
Back to training again now and Saturday saw my 3rd road run, well walk/run anyway. 3 x 3 min runs with 4min walk intervals and 5 min warm up and cool down - I'm still scared of the achilles so am forcing myself to be careful.
This road run was a major milestone as the distance and time equalled my disastrous first outing back in April when I injured myself. 

• 12th Jan 2013: 3.7 km of which 1.7 km was running   27m overall 9m running
• 22nd Apr 2012: 3.6 km of which 1.7 km was running   25m overall 8m running

Training Halted Again

Training halted again, calf pain this time. On the 18th length of the pool last Friday I suddenly had pain in a knot inside my left calf muscle. I haven't risked any runs since but I did go for a 7 mile hill walk on Sunday which caused it to hurt sometimes. In M&S last night, I was having no trouble then just out of the blue it hurt again when I moved after I'd been hanging about waiting for Lynne.
It doesn't hurt most of the time but poking around in the calf locates a painful firm area. I think it's improving but I've been up a ladder pruning trees this morning which pulled a bit occasionally and was hardly resting it.

Getting worried as the weeks keep disappearing and I'm not even at 5 km yet. Most recent progress was to 3 x 4min runs split with 3 min walk on treadmill.   (1.7 km actual run in 2.57 km overall)
On the positive side, achilles feel fine after all this time.

Received my first sponsorship this week which is great. Feel free to join in below.

60@60 goes sponsored

Saint Ann's Hospice
St Ann's Hospice provide remarkable care and comfort for those in their last days and their families and friends. My efforts in the Great Manchester 10k on 26thMay 2013 will be driven on by the memory of my Mum, Margaret, and also Sheila Waddington, a classmate at primary school who I had just got to know again when she became ill in 2012 and spent her final days in St Ann's care.

60at60 - a reminder
In 5 months time I will be sixty years old and I decided to try to mark the occasion with a better than 60min completion of a 10km run. I began training last April and then lost 6 months with achilles damage due to over enthusiastic beginnings and ignoring my age. Only now am I free enough of pain to feel able to commit to requesting sponsorship toward this charity.

Donate (please)
Donating through Ged's JustGiving page is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.

And Then, Another Minute Passed

A positive 2 weeks with definite progress to a new, though still elementary, level.
2 treadmill and swimming sessions each week and I got my 1st road run for 6 months in.

1st Road Trip
The road run on Monday achieved a pathetic 3 x 1 min intervals separated by 2 min walks with 5 min warm up and cool down walks. After the achilles pain and heartache following my runs in April I was staying really safe. 0.5km actual run with 1.5km walk.

On a Roll(er)
Both this week's treadmill sessions included 10 min and 1.33 km of actual run which is the most I've risked since the injury. Yesterday's treadmill session moved up to 5 x 2 min run intervals from the previous 10 x 1 min.
Fitness wise no issues, though I was surprised to note how much more effort 2 minutes continuous was compared to 1 min even with the same overall distance and longer walk intervals.
I did suffer some achilles discomfort in the left leg a few hours afterwards but I iced it when I got home and this morning all seems well.
Hope to get another road run in tomorrow then I guess no sessions 'till after the holiday.

Enjoy the Christmas holiday and I hope 2013 is a great year for anyone who has taken time to read my ramblings.

Now You See Me

Committed to getting out in the street eventually I treated myself today to a pair of running tights with fluorescent yellow flashes and reflective trim for the dark cold nights. They saw me coming.. and you'll see me going.. hopefully.

Knocked Back again
Second Treadmill session of the week week went well moving to 8 x 1 min run intervals with just 1 min walk between. Just about 2km again and all felt well until post exercise stretches when I felt a sting of pain in the calf in one leg and lower achilles in the other, can't recall which, doh! Anyway, 20 lengths of the pool was fine until climbing the steps which felt on the edge of hurting (but not).
Home stretches during the weekend triggered repeat alarming pulls and my hopes for a road run at weekend were put on hold as I kept having calf pain and my achilles felt 'weak'. However, there is no particular tenderness in the tendons themselves so I've delayed my Monday session giving another 24hrs and, rather than progress again along my planned training path, I'll restart as last week with 1/1:30 intervals.

Treadmill Pace
Treadmill pace for last week's second session was 8kph / 4.7kph (up from 7 / 4 previous) which felt about right. I noticed that the auto cool down speed was 4.8 so I think I'll adopt that in future for the walk interval. It also struck me during the cool down, that the gradient is dropped off and logically, my 5 min walking warm-up could start level and increase gradient after a couple of minutes in a reverse fashion.